WHERE WE ARE ON APRIL 17, 2013: Still need $14,602.33 to meet $170,050 yearly goal by April 15, 2014 ($1,216 per month - 12 months from April 1, 2012 - April 1, 2013)

Savings Goals:
Hubby's paychecks $2,478 X 26 wks = $64,428
My savings $1,500 mo. X 12 = $18,000
By March 1, 2014 hubby and I should meet our savings goal of $175,050 and have $50,097 in extra savings (this will give us an emergency fund of $80,097). Next year we hope to convert the remaining $100K of the real estate IRA into a roth and will need about $45K to do that. We will easily be able to meet that goal during 2014!

WHO ARE WE (money wise)?
I am a wife and mother of two grown sons. I own a business & my husband has a good job and we have done some things right (pd. off mortgage, pretty good 401Ks, more than $100,000 in savings, 9 mostly paid off rental houses (10 units). Previously we used a VISA card but now we are only using our debit card.

Most people would say we are in great shape which we are, however, I also have a tendency to overspend money at times (sometimes I worry I have a spending problem).

I want to learn to appreciate what I have and stop frittering money away. With me it is usually either wild overspending or total frugality. I want to learn to live a more balanced financial life, in the middle.

SPENDING/SAVINGS GOALS:
* Continue to stay off EBAY!!! DONE
* Write down all expenditures DONE
* Continue to use the debit card, not the charge card GOT RID OF CHARGE CARD! DONE
* FIND OUT WHAT WE NEED TO LIVE EACH MONTH! Develop a spending plan. DONE
* Continue to save my DH�s
paychecks and live on mine
DONE
INVESTMENT GOALS:
* Gather all figures for 401K,
IRAs, banks accounts DONE
* Create a Net Worth Statement DONE
* Use real estate (rentals) to produce income of $7,000 a month in income tax free

GOAL: Turn the rental account into a ROTH in 2013 so all rental income will be tax free. This is a BIG savings goal for us! We need $120-$160K to pay the taxes on this 400K account. (we have have to convert 280K of the account this year and 100K next year so we will still have some emergency fund money left)

INVESTMENT GOALS: Get our 401K invested in safe mututal funds
FEB - Created a plan and are dollar cost averaging to get back in over the next six months.

Inspecting New Rental House

January 18th, 2011 at 06:23 am

Two weeks and 1 day into financial sanity!! Yeah!!
Yesterday took change from the laundry room into Coinstar and got $14.95! Spent $44.39 on gas and just $1.50 for washing my mudball-like car. Was very pleased because normally I spend $5-$6 on a carwash, but happened to use a coin op wash where my six quarters really did wash the whole car! I will go back to that one!!

Tried to pay off DH's car loan yesterday but the bank was closed for MLK day. I will do that this morning which feels great.

This morning a basement person is meeting us at the rental house we are in the process of purchasing. This is a very nice REPO that appraised for $205K that we got for $153,750. This should rent for about $2,000 a month and is part of our plan for financial security in retirement. My DH and I have flipped houses for years and if this doesn't rent for as much as think it will (about 2K a month) then we will fix it up and resell it, although we REALLY plan to keep it as a high-end rental as it will bring in such nice income even after taxes, insurance and expenses.

So far, we have one very low end rental and this very nice one...we are at both extremes. This spring we plan to sell our cheapie rental house on an owner carry which will continue to bring in income.

My challenge will be to do the fixup on this new house on a budget and NOT get carried away to make it perfect as I have done in the past. Really all it needs is new interior paint, cleanup and updating some brass light fixtures. I am fighting the urge to buy it carpet as the current carpet is dark green, but my realtor says replacing it isn't necessary (he has about 16 rentals and should probably know).

I know some of you out there are not in favor of rental houses, but please don't let me know that as we have already done this and feel it is our ticket to financial security for the future. I strongly believe in living off the interest in retirement or having investments that will pay your living expenses.

I am praying that we find a financially stable couple or family that will rent our house for many years.

We also have a newly acquired rental house - moderate range. Just closed in December. In the process of cleaning, painting, fixing. It was bank owned and has been empty for a year.

We have had one rental some 15 years ago and had a positive experience. It was a condo I owned before marriage and not able to sell when we bought a house together. But after 6 years (3 different tenants) we were able to sell at a modest profit.

Thanks everyone for all your nice comments. Unfortunately, the basement didn't check out as well as we had hoped. The repair will be $6,500 we had not budgeted for. My DH is out of of town but he's calling me tonight to talk through it. We may end up passing on this one...

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